Japan’s Line Corporation to launch mobile movie app for kids

Japanese internet company Line Corporation announced yesterday that it is planning to soon launch an iOS movie app for pre-school kids and their parents. The app is called ‘Line Kids Doga’, and the company intends to use it to provide child-safe content.

The app will provide more than 1,500 movies across 28 animation titles including Doraemon, Pokemon, Pretty Cure, Anne of Green Gables, and Thomas and Friends.

The service has two pricing plans. The freemium version lets you to watch movies up to 40 minutes a day for free, and you can earn more minutes by persuading yout Line contacts to give them to you. There are two subscription options: If you pay 500 yen ($5) a month, you can watch any of 300 episodes from selected video programs. If you pay 400 yen ($4) a month, you can watch any episodes of one program that you have selected.

Masaru started his career as a programmer/engineer, and previously co-founded several system integration companies and consulting firms. He’s been traveling around Silicon Valley and Asia exploring the IT industry, and he also curates event updates for the Tokyo edition of Startup Digest.